W poszukiwaniu własnego głosu. Poezja auszrininków a wiersz polski XIX wieku

ENThis article explores the relations between the Lithuanian and the Polish poetry in the last two decades of the 19th century. It was a time which saw the rise of Lithuanian National Revival, headed by writers and journalists gathered round the first national Lithuanian magazine Aušra, published in East Prussia between 1883–1886. The Aušrininkai, as they were commonly called, wanted to establish a national canon of Lithuanian literature, which should be fully independent of the Polish literary tradition. Although the severing of historic links with Polish literature and language went far beyond mere declarations, their task involved the reformers in a paradoxical situation. The paradox, long since noted by historians of Lithuanian culture and literature, was that in order in order to produce their own corpus they ransacked Polish literature for themes and motifs (especially those with a Lithuanian connection and a Romantic flavour) and translated a lot of Polish texts. The article asks the question whether a similar appropriation took place in the area of versifi cation, ie. if the poets of the Lithuanian Revival, when confronted with formal choices in their handling of meter, steered clear of the Polish model or fell in with it despite their programmatic commitments. In fact, they had yet another option – to get round the dichotomy of either picking up the the thread of tradition or letting it go completely. The answer to these dilemmas is sought the interpretation and analysis of a selection of poems published by the Aušrininkai, generally believed to be the founders of modern Lithuanian literature.